Edward Baldwin, 4th Earl Baldwin of Bewdley

Edward Alfred Alexander Baldwin, 4th Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (born 3 January 1938) is a British educator, hereditary peer and former Crossbench member of the House of Lords.

The Right Honourable The Earl Baldwin of Bewdley
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 15 November 1977 – 9 May 2018 Hereditary Peerage
Preceded by	The 3rd Earl Baldwin of Bewdley
Succeeded by	The Earl of Devon
Personal details
Born	3 January 1938
Political party	Crossbench
Spouse(s)	Sarah James ​ ​ (m. 1970; died 2001)​
Relations	Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (grandfather) Charles Alexander Tomes (grandfather)
Children	3
Education	Eton College
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

Early life

Baldwin was born 3 January 1938. He is the only child of Arthur Baldwin, 3rd Earl Baldwin of Bewdley and the former Joan Elspeth Tomes (1901–1980).[1] His paternal grandparents were Lucy Baldwin and Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, three-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.[2] His maternal grandparents were Harriot (née Hancock) Tomes and Charles Alexander Tomes, an American-born merchant in the Far East with Shewan, Tomes & Co.[3]

Education and career

Baldwin was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied modern languages and law. Before entering Trinity, he served from 1956 until 1958 as a second lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps. Between 1970 and 1987 he served in a variety of education positions, initially as a school teacher (teaching German and French) and latterly as Area Education Officer for Oxfordshire from 1980 to 1987.[4]

On the death of his father in 1976, Baldwin became a member of the House of Lords and was one of the ninety elected hereditary peers who remained after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999. While in the House of Lords, he was Joint Chairman of Parliamentary Group for Alternative and Complementary Medicine in 1992 and was a member of the Select Committee of Inquiry into Complementary and Alternative Medicine from 1999 to 2000. He sat as a crossbencher until retiring under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014 in May 2018.[5]

Personal life

In 1970, Baldwin married Sarah James (died 2001), eldest daughter of Evan James, of Upwood Park in Abingdon, County of Berkshire. They lived at Manor Farm House in Upper Wolvercote, Oxford, and were the parents of three sons:

• Benedict Alexander Stanley Baldwin, Viscount Corvedale (born 28 December 1973), heir apparent to the earldom.
• Hon. James Conrad Baldwin (born 13 March 1976)
• Hon. Mark Thomas Maitland Baldwin (born 24 July 1980)

Works

• Philip Williamson; Edward Baldwin, eds. (2004). Baldwin Papers: A Conservative Statesman, 1908-1947. University of Durham. ISBN 978-0-521-58080-9.

Arms

Coat of arms of Edward Baldwin, 4th Earl Baldwin of Bewdley

Coronet A Coronet of an Earl Crest A Cockatrice sejant wings addorsed Argent combed wattled and beaked Or gorged with a Crown Vallary lined and reflexed over the back Gold and charged on the shoulder with a Rose Gules barbed and seeded proper Escutcheon Argent on a Saltire Sable a Quatrefoil Or Supporters On either side a White Owl proper, that on the sinister holding in the beak a Sprig of Broom also proper Motto Per Deum Meum Transilio Murum (With the help of my God I leap over the wall)

References

1. "JOAN TOMES WED TO PREMIER'S SON; Daughter of New York Couple Bride of Arthur Baldwin in London" (PDF). The New York Times. 26 August 1936. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
2. Tomes, James Steel (2015). Serendipity: The Genealogy of Tomes, Steel, Raymaley and Schaeffer, Witmeyer and Burger. AuthorHouse. p. 38. ISBN 9781496938411. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
3. "WYNDHAM BALDWIN TO WED; Son of Prime Minister Will Marry Joan E. Tomes, an American" (PDF). The New York Times. 29 July 1936. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
4. House of Lords profile
5. List of retired members of the House of Lords

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl Baldwin of Bewdley